Funeral costs in France are rising sharply

Funeral costs in France are rising sharply, with burials now costing at least 4,000 euros, and prices continuing to increase. Unlike the birth of a child, which is fully covered by the community, for death, it is each person for themselves, or for their loved ones.

Death and social inequality

This essential passage of life is not exempt from capitalist logic, further reinforcing social inequalities. The Collective for a Death Social Security advocates for the extension of the Social Security to this universal stage. Funeral costs (burial, cremation, mortuary care, etc.) carried out by contracted companies would be fully reimbursed through a salary contribution, explains Alban Beaudouin, co-founder of the collective and co-author with Jean-Loup de Saint-Phalle of the book The Cost of Death (Éditions du Détour, 2025).

Rising funeral prices

According to a 2019 report by the Court of Auditors, funeral prices have been increasing three times faster than inflation. This increase dates back to the opening of the sector to competition with the Sueur Law in 1993.

Impact of the Sueur Law

Previously, the communes guided families toward the local funeral operator or had their own funeral service in the form of a municipal agency. The market was largely dominated by general funeral services (PFG), which led to a strong mobilization of independent operators to end this monopoly.

Choice and vulnerability

Since then, families can choose between the two major groups that dominate the market — PFG and Funecap —, the independents, the municipal agencies, and the cooperatives. The problem is that this choice occurs at a moment of vulnerability: relatives do not always know how to distinguish mandatory services from optional ones and end up paying more than expected.

Exploitation of grief

For example, a bolster (small cushion in the coffin) is not mandatory. Some companies perpetuate this confusion, or even play on the guilt of families by associating the price with the dignity of the funeral. And this commodification of death weighs more on the poorest people.

Existing assistance

The Social Security already offers assistance, the death capital. It reimburses up to 4,009 euros for funerals for a private sector employee or an unemployed person, but almost no one knows about this assistance.

Inequality in death

You explain in your book that the poorest people are penalized even in the way they die and are buried. How do social inequalities extend even to death? First, the poorest people die earlier than others. They are also more exposed to the risk of having to finance several funerals during their lives.

Social pressure on funerals

Funerals are a time of strong social pressure: the ceremonies are similar and respond to bourgeois norms — a quality coffin, a master of ceremonies, a reception afterwards — to which it is difficult to deviate. The poorest are faced with a dilemma: either pay a lot, or suffer the violence of having a cheap ceremony.

Insurance and costs

This pressure pushes the working classes to subscribe to insurance contracts to avoid leaving this burden and being a burden on their loved ones. However, these contracts often cost more than the reality of the funeral: according to the age of death, one may have paid more than the capital paid out.

Proposed solution

Faced with this funeral capitalism, it is necessary to extend the Social Security system to death. Specifically, what would it consist of? Funerals would be fully covered by the Social Security, through a 0.3% contribution of gross salary.

Reimbursing services

The idea is not to pay a 4,000 euro lump sum for each death, but to reimburse funeral services regardless of their cost so that everyone can choose according to their preferences and allow diversity to be expressed. For example, since there is no crematorium in Guyana, one has to travel to Guadeloupe to be cremated.

Mourning leave

"A Social Security for death would allow for a real mourning leave." Similarly, the list of services covered would be democratically defined within funeral colleges, composed of citizens drawn by lot. They would therefore choose to reimburse the services considered useful or essential, such as the coffin, cremation, burial, composting, mortuary care...

Mourning support

A Social Security for death would also allow for a real mourning leave, whose duration would be adapted to the needs of each person, with a 100% salary maintained, regardless of the relationship with the deceased. Today, the leaves are very short and depend on the family relationship: for example, friends have no days.

Psychological support

To help with mourning, sessions with a conventioned psychologist would be fully covered.

Protecting funeral workers

The Social Security for death is not only for grieving families. The project is also to go through contracted companies... Yes, it is absolutely essential. Families could only benefit from the reimbursed services through contracted companies that associate employees with decision-making and without profit logic.

Better working conditions

It is the same principle as for conventioned doctors. These funeral agents would be paid by the Social Security, on the basis of a fixed salary and not based on the number of burials performed as is the case today. Protecting them would improve their working conditions, which are difficult.

Challenges in the sector

Many coffin bearers are on temporary contracts, sometimes without sufficient training, and they are faced with humanly exhausting situations. As a result, there are many work accidents, burnout risks, and increasing precariousness. These poorly paid and insufficiently recognized jobs are nevertheless essential.

Origins of the collective

How did the idea of this collective and making death a solidarity issue arise? With Jean-Loup de Saint-Phalle, we both lost our grandfathers in 2020. We then wondered why death, unlike birth, was not collectively covered.

Inspiration and research

Both of us were originally secondary school teachers, and we have no connection to the funeral world. We became interested in the work of economist Bernard Friot, who proposes extending the Social Security model to other areas of the economy. As our research progressed, we discovered other forms of solidarity around death.

Global examples

In Geneva, funerals have been covered by the community for nearly 150 years, following a referendum. In Senegal and other West African countries, the village pools resources to organize funerals.

Progress and political support

Since the creation of your collective in 2022, have things advanced? Has your idea been adopted by political parties? It is mainly on the side of La France insoumise that our proposal has found an echo. Last year, the insoumise deputy Hadrien Clouet submitted a bill that largely echoed our ideas.

Challenges ahead

The text remained blocked in the social affairs committee, without being discussed, even though it could unite beyond political divisions. This proposal should also appear in Jean-Luc Mélenchon's program for the presidential election.

Public awareness

In parallel, society is moving forward. The release in 2025 of the investigative book The Vultures [by Brianne Huguerre-Cousin and Matthieu Slisse, published by Seuil], on the French giants of the funeral industry, has highlighted the sector's deviations.

Public engagement

On our side, we have given 48 gestural conferences to address this project in associations, bookstores, or local governments. We are beginning to talk about death as a real political and social issue, and not just as the opportunity to go to the cemetery on All Saints' Day.

Book publication

The Cost of Death — Social Security Until the End, by Alban Beaudouin and Jean-Loup de Saint-Phalle, published by Robert Laffont, March 2025, 144 pages, 14.90 euros.